Key Francis Scott

Key

Francis Scott 1779-1843

American lawyer and poet who wrote “Defense of Fort M'Henry” after witnessing the British attack on Fort McHenry at Baltimore on September 13-14, 1814. The poem was set to the music of an 18th-century tune called “To Anacreon in Heaven,” renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and adopted by Congress in 1931 as the national anthem.